amazing: 1. wearing more clothes really does keep you warmer; 2. the bus actually shows up

i've been going to work in single-digit weather for 3 days now, and it just so happened that i was always either catching the first bus running in the morning or the last bus of the day at night. at times like those, when i was waiting in the dark at 6:30am or 10:30pm, it honestly seemed pretty much a miracle that the once-an-hour bus actually came. on time. it was also at times like these that whenever i felt the least bit ridiculous in my extremely fashionable 2-sweaters-2-coats-and-multiple-pants getup, i would take one look at the austere snow-covered mountains around me and remember that i do, indeed, live in a frozen tundra rainforest.

so far, i've been dealing with all the unusual things happening at work surprisingly well. by "unusual," i actually mean "quite usual" for this job. we lock up all the sharps and medication at work, but someone still managed to get ahold of an x-acto knife elsewhere and cut their genetalia. the hardest part is to remember that as much as i want to be their friend, the most important part of my job is to role model healthy adult/care-taker behavior (most kids there come from alcoholic and/or incestuous families), which includes a significant amount of "holding the kids responsible for their own actions," and we all know that kids tend not to like that.

anyway, at the end of the x-acto knife day, B took me to experience my first taste of the famously local Alaskan Brewing Company, which only has this one brewery, but exports to 9 states in the western continental U.S.. The ABC ("alskan," not "ann arbor," that is) offers free samples anytime, and i tried their smoked porter and barley wine, both very delightful. for all you microbrew enthusiasts, check them out: http://www.alaskanbeer.com/home.html